Project Report ICT-Enabled Social Innovation for Social Good

Andrea Benkeovaa, Juan Manuel Cruzb, Jørgen Valstadc, Mafalda Silvad, Neeruja Balenthirane

a Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences

b Faculty of Architecture and Design

c Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering

d Faculty of Engineering

e Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

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Acknowledgements

We have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the

kind support and help of many individuals and organizations and thus we would like to

extend our sincere thanks to all of them.

We are highly indebted to all the ICT - Enabled Social Innovation for Social Good village

members, from supervisors, to challenge owners, observers and people associated with the

ASD cause for their guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary

information regarding the project and also for their support completing the project. We also

would like to express our gratitude towards the persons with ASD for their kind cooperation

and encouragement which motivated us in creation and completion of this project.

To our challenge owners, for believing in our project and for their inestimable help and also

to NTNU for giving us the possibility of being part of this course. Our thanks and

appreciations also go to the rest of the village colleagues for sharing their ideas and projects

and giving us feedback and constructive comments for developing this project.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction 4

1.1 The problem 4

1.2 Motivation 6

1.3 Group Expertise and Contribution 6

1.3.1 Andrea 6

1.3.2 Juanma 7

1.3.3 Jørgen 7

1.3.4 Mafalda 8

1.3.5 Neeruja 8

1.3.5 Valuing diversity 9

2. Background Theories 11

2.1 Social Innovation 11

2.2 Sustainability 11

2.3 Socratic 12

2.4 Autistic Spectrum Disorder 13

3. Proposed solution 14

3.1 Related Work 15

3.1.1 Prima-Escala career center 15

3.1.2 LinkedIn 16

4. Methodology 16

4.1 Week 1 16

4.2 Week 2 17

4.3 Week 3 18

5. Findings 19

6. Discussion 21

6.1 Theoretical Implications 21

6.2 Practical Implications 22

6.3 Limitations 23

6.3.1 How does a person with ASD think and behave? 23

6.3.2 Security and confidentiality 23

6.3.3 How to get business involved? 24

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6.3.4 Fundraising 24

6.4 Future work 25

7. Conclusion 26

References 26

Appendices 29

Appendix A: Business Plan Outline 30

1. Executive Summary 30

2. Company description 30

3. Market Analysis 30

4. Service or Product Line 31

5. Strategy and Implementation Summary 31

6. Organization & Management 32

7. Operational plan 32

8. Marketing & Promotion 32

9. Financial Projections 33

Appendix B: Functional Requirements 35

Appendix C: Personal Post-Its 37

Appendix D: Prototype 43

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1. Introduction

According to recent findings, the number of persons with ASD is being increasing over time.

However, despite their proven ability and desire to work, it is estimated that around 80 %

of adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are unemployed (Chaste & Leboyer, 2012;

Hendricks, 2010; UN, 2016b). This high share of unemployment can lead to several negative

impacts at both an economical and an individual level (Chaste & Leboyer, 2012; The

Economist, 2016).

The United Nations (UN) adopted in 2015 the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that

comprises measures towards the end of poverty, protection of the planet, and ensuring

prosperity (United Nations, 2015). Essentially, it creates measures to build an inclusive,

sustainable and resilient future for the people and the planet (United Nations, 2016a). The

goal number 8, for example, states that the promotion of inclusive and sustainable

economic growth, employment and decent work for all should be secured by 2030 (United

Nations, 2015). Therefore, taking into account the large share of unemployed persons with

ASD, several actions are required by 2030.

The aim of this project is to find an innovative solution that fulfils the UN SDGs, more

specifically, goals number 3, 8 and 10. The chosen solution was the ASPIRE idea, which

basically aims to constitute a bridge between the different parts – inclusive employer and

ASD job seeker.

1.1 The problem

Autism was in 1943 defined by Leo Kanner, “as an innate inability to create normal,

biologically determined, emotional contact with others” (Chaste & Leboyer, 2012). Autism is

known to be a complex disorder where both genetic and environmental factors have been

known to influence the disorder (Chaste & Leboyer, 2012). ASD is a range of disorders, when

a person has ‘persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across

multiple contexts and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities ’

(WHO, 2016). Meaning people with ASD struggle with social-emotional reciprocity, struggle

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to understand nonverbal communication and social interactions and cannot properly

develop and understand relationships. They usually follow strict patterns in movement,

expressions and when using items in their daily life. If they get introduced to a new situation

they have a tendency to be stressful and collapse in that particular moment. Moreover,

people with ASD might experience hyper- or hyposensitivity to their surroundings (WHO,

2016).

However, having a disability does not necessarily mean being different. The society often

tend to treat persons with disabilities differently and sometimes even excluding them from

being part of the society. There are many ASD people that want to be involved in the

workplace, and want to enter the job market, but to be able to reach that platform a bridge

between the employee and the employer must be built. This has been the major problem

for the ASD association, and a core source of struggle in the last decades. These individuals,

despite their disability, have similar ambitions and potentialities as any neurotypical job

seeker.

Many employers might be biased towards applicants with ASD, and disabilities in general,

mainly because they do not have enough knowledge in how to deal with this disorder.

Usually, knowing about the disability, people focus more on challenges and problems

connected to it instead of evaluating their skills and abilities which can be very beneficial for

the workplace (EiT, 2017).

The process of getting a job, writing a CV, presenting your personal skills and abilities,

choosing the right words for a job application, or even going to the interview itself might

often feel stressful for many people. For people with ASD it might be even more stressful

than we could imagine. They are unique individuals with valuable skills and differ one from

another and thus it is impossible to generalize their needs and behaviours. Therefore, there

is a great demand for a solution which might be applicable and adjustable for their

individual needs. For that reason the main goal of this project was to create a sustainable

solution to the ASD association, in order to reduce the social stressful steps on their way to

the employment. We chose challenge named, Interdisciplinary - overall knowledge sharing

about the individual job seeker, and our challenge owner was the career center Escala which

helps job seekers with disabilities to enter the job market.

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1.2 Motivation

During the second village day we got the opportunity to meet Marianne, a woman with

Asperger’s syndrome. She gave us a stunning speech where she presented her life,

associated struggles and challenges she has been facing with her condition. She focused

mostly on the work-related issues and at the end she referred her unemployment situation.

Her speech was inspiring, moving and allowed us to realize how unfair the work market is

for persons with ASD. Therefore, after Marianne’s speech and after realizing the high share

of unemployed persons with ASD, we felt much more involved into this issue and even

responsible for contributing positively towards a change in the life quality of such persons.

Another important motivation factor for us was the given opportunity to contribute to the

fulfilling of SDGs, especially goal number 8. This has to do with the fact that we believe that

by promoting the inclusion of persons with ADS in the workforce, we will be contributing to

the increase of economic growth, and thus towards a more sustainable development.

Additionally, by creating a more inclusive workforce, we will be also contributing to the

decrease of social inequalities, and consequently contributing to the fulfilling of goal

number 10.

1.3 Group Expertise and Contribution

Our team is interdisciplinary and we value and respect each other ideas and opinions. The

team members on this group came from different study programs, different cultures, and

have different skills and abilities, which gave us a broad spectrum of interesting ideas to

work with.

In the next sections, a brief description of each member skills and abilities will be presented,

as well as how each member was able to contribute to this project.

1.3.1 Andrea

Andrea has her Bachelor in Psychology and Education and during her studies she has been

working as an assistant for children with ASD and her first-hand experience helped the team

to understand persons with ASD a little bit more. She also had courses such as

Developmental Psychology, Psychopathology or Special Education where she gained the

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theoretical knowledge further used in creating autism friendly solution and helping the

team to stay on the track. She was the right person to present our idea to challenge owners

on the arranged meeting and communicate further within the topic with them. The group

was usually asking her for her opinion in making crucial decisions where it was necessary to

apply the theoretical knowledge about autism. Andrea also has good presentation skills and

she was mainly the one presenting our project throughout the 3 weeks.

1.3.2 Juanma

As an architect, Juanma was a creative pillar for the team. He worked on the web prototype

design and development using Justinmind software. An architect has to provide new ideas

to build something different. Asphire is something different and needed new ideas that he

provided. Another key thing to remember is that using adobe photoshop and adobe

illustrator, he drew the Asphire logo and some of the previous ideas drawings and logos.

At NTNU he has prepared several presentations, either using Powerpoint or other software

like Prezi. He took major part creating figures that helped the presentations to be more

dynamic and understandable to the audience, and he was also part of the final presentation

because he is confident in oral presentations.

1.3.3 Jørgen

Having a computer science background, the team often consulted Jørgen regarding

technical questions. In the ideation phase, he provided input on the feasibility of ideas. For

example, when discussing how users would map their skills on the website, someone

proposed that users could write their skills in free text. Employers looking for programmers

could then search for a specific word, like programmer, and find people who are

programmers. Jørgen argued that while this idea is good, it’s a lot of work to implement

correctly. Suppose a user writes “I enjoy coding and problem solving”. A pure text search for

“programmer” would not discover this relevant person.

Most software engineers learn about models and frameworks for development cycles. At

NTNU, Jørgen has taken relevant courses like Software Development, Human-Machine

Interaction and Software Architecture. One of the techniques Jørgen proposed was to

create a functional requirements document, which would later be used in creating a paper

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prototype. Paper prototypes are beneficial in the early stages of a project, as they allow for

rapid iteration of design and the time invested in creating prototypes is small.

The next phase of development was to create a digital prototype. Rather than going directly

to development of a real website with HTML, CSS and Javascript, Jørgen suggested that a

digital prototype could be constructed using a prototyping tool. This allowed everyone to

contribute, as no previous knowledge of programming was needed. The tool in question

was JustInMind, which looks a lot like Photoshop for software design. Having used similar

tools before, Jørgen could quickly create an initial design based on the paper prototype.

One of the personal abilities that Jørgen made use of was his ability to do presentations.

Jørgen took a major part in every presentation, four in total. Even though he struggled with

nervousness, his experience from countless of presentations in high school enabled him to

deliver some strong performances. The group selected him along with one other person to

perform the final presentation.

1.3.4 Mafalda

Mafalda has a MSc Environmental Engineering and she is studying industrial ecology. She

has been working for several years as an engineer, with her past degree in environmental

studies. Since she has a broad experience in teamwork in multidisciplinary teams, and have

been using that experience to maintain a good group work in EiT. She has also done several

courses related to sustainability, mostly in the spectrum of the environment. Since this is an

EiT village with focus on sustainability, she has been sharing her ideas and thoughts

regarding sustainability to the project. This have been very helpful for the group work, and

made our project with a strong vision. Since she has already completed a master's degree, it

was clearly that she had developed good writing skills, and this has been very supporting for

the group work.

1.3.5 Neeruja

Neeruja has a bachelor degree in healthcare systems (Biomedical laboratory scientist) and

she has been working with patients with ASD and have some experience with patient

handling. During her studies she also took a course in communication related to the

healthcare system, where she has been learning about verbal and nonverbal

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communication. She has also been working with individuals with Asperger syndrome as her

colleagues, and contributed to how they behave and how they are in a social setting. This

has been helpful for the progress of the project report, since we are making a platform for

jobseeker with ASD. She has contributed to the project by participating in the meeting with

Escala and to explain our vision to the them. She has also been contributing to the

theoretical part about Autism, since the disorder can be related to both genetic and

environmental factors, since she is in her master studies in Molecular Medicine. Neeruja

also has some experience in writing, and this has been helpful during the project writing.

1.3.5 Valuing diversity

During these three weeks we have been working as a team to achieve a common goal,

which was to create a platform for jobseekers from the ASD association. It is amazing to see

how totally different individuals from different academic backgrounds can work together for

the same aim.

Jørgen has been contributing to this project with his background in computer science, and

he took a natural position in our group regarding this matter. Since the other group

members are not studying computer science, we had a tendency to come with ideas which

were not possible to perform in this short time limit. Jørgen has been the analytic person in

our group that thinks through and has the ability to enlighten the other group members

about an idea, if it is feasible or not. This is showing his importance in the team, and

emphasizing the importance of having a member from a computer science.

Andrea has a background in psychology and she is doing her masters in Childhood studies,

and her contribution has been a strength to our group. She has been working in

kindergarten and has experience in how autistic children behave and react in different

situations. Since we were creating platform for autistic people, her opinion about the idea

was very helpful for the rest of the group members. Almost every team member have in

some way met a person with autism, but since she has been working with autistic people,

she had an insightful understanding of their point of view. We all conclude that to be able to

have a successful project you need to have the ability to think in their shoes, because at the

end they are the one who will be using the platform in the future.

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Mafalda is studying MSc in industrial ecology, and she has been working for several years as

an engineer, with her past degree as an environmental engineer in environmental studies.

Her expertise in performing a SWOT analysis was of high importance to the final outcome of

this task, because of her experience in performing such analysis. She has excellent

experience in working in teams, and we took advantage of it to our team. We all experience

that she had a broad experience from group work, just by observing how she was handling

the different situation in our group work. She is considered the most systematic team

member in our group, and been a major help in the group work.

Juanma is studying sustainable architecture, and he has been the most creative person in

our team. Since he is studying to become architect, his creativity is reflected in his work. His

contribution, especially to the design with close collaboration with Jørgen has been very

helpful for the team project progression. Additionally, his creativity and artistic side helped

to get a better outcome in the different tasks performed since he had a different

perspective, especially in the brainstorming exercises this characteristic was very helpful.

Besides it positive attitude and optimism were very important to keep the group highly

motivated during the development of the project.

Neeruja is doing her MSc in molecular medicine and since she has a degree related to

healthcare, she has experience in working with patients with autism. She has also been

working with a colleague with Aspergers, and she has been contributing to the project with

knowledge about how an autistic person think and behave. This has been very helpful since

we were able to get an insight into how autistic people would think. Since she has a medical

background she has been contributing to understand the genetic and environmental factor

for developing autism. We all agreed that since she is from a medical background, she is

used to have a clear vision of what is going on in any situation. She has been the person in

this group which asks question, and to have a clear vision of the project.

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2. Background Theories

2.1 Social Innovation

Social innovation consists of creating new ideas that work in meeting social goals (Mulgan,

Tucker, Ali, & Sanders, 2007). The main difference between social innovation and business

innovation is the fact that social innovation is not motivated by profit maximization. A major

motivation to address social innovation has to do with the global economical and

environmental challenges we face as a society today. These challenges indicate that most of

the problems we are facing today have been taken on an increasingly social dimension

(European Commission, 2010).

The social innovation process consists of four stages. The first stage is the awareness of a

need that is not being met and the subsequent proposed idea of how it could be met. The

next stage is the need to tie the idea to new possibilities, which can be technological, or

derive from new organizational forms, for example. In third stage of the social innovation

process the idea needs to prove itself in practice and that is able to grow. The growth can be

through organic growth, replication, adaptation or franchising, and usually presents an ‘S

curve’, i.e., slow in the beginning, followed by a rapid take-off and then a slowing down as

maturation and maturity are achieved. Nevertheless, in order to prove that an idea works

and that has potential to growth, a skillful strategy and a coherent vision are required. The

fourth and the last stage consists of learn from the idea testing results and to adapt to

them, which might result in forms that may be very different from the expectations of the

pioneers. This has to do with the fact that testing the idea might result in unintended

consequences, or unexpected applications. (Mulgan et al., 2007)

2.2 Sustainability

Sustainable development is often defined as the ‘development that meets the needs of the

present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’

(United Nations, 2016a). In order to achieve a sustainable development, three core

elements need to be fulfilled, namely economic growth, social inclusion and environmental

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protection. In this sense, the UN agreed upon seventeen sustainable goals, Figure 1, which

implementation and success will rely on countries own sustainable development policies,

plans and programmes (United Nations, 2016a)

Figure 1: The Sustainable Development Goals defined by UN (United Nations, 2016a)

As previously referred in Chapter 1, this project will focus on develop an idea that aims to

fulfil goals number 3, 8 and 10, which will be further explained in Chapter 3 - Proposed

solution.

2.3 Socratic

Socratic stands for SOcial CReAtive IntelligenCe and it is an online knowledge-based

platform which aims to facilitate the identification of innovative solutions in order to reach

the SDGs (SOCRATIC, 2016). In this sense, it provides tools and services to support the ideas

creation process, throughout its life cycle, i.e., from the identification of a problem, to

creation of new solutions until the final decision-making process and further development

and implementation of the best ideas. Essentially, Socratic powers collaboration by allowing

stakeholders and innovators to communicate concerns and ideas. Besides, in the final

decision-making process it allows stakeholders to vote on ideas, which is a good way to

lower the threshold for giving feedback.

Another service provided by Socratic platform is the Global Observatory on Sustainability

Challenges. This service has three main goals, measure the impact of Socratic actions on

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Global Sustainability Challenges by monitoring social networks, use the data gathered as a

source of information to launch challenges, and also act as a referent (SOCRATIC, 2016).

For this specific project, Socratic was used as a tool to create innovative solutions for the

SDGs number 3, 8 and 10, as referred in section 2.2.

2.4 Autistic Spectrum Disorder

In the past decades several studies focusing on the genetic and the environmental causes

have been performed, due to the increased prevalence of autism (Chaste & Leboyer, 2012).

This study focused on studying twins and it concluded that the genes were more involved in

the development of autism than the environmental factors (Bailey et al., 1995). This is in

accordance with a study published in 2011 which discovered that the heritability level is

around 55% for autism (Hallmayer et al., 2011). Regarding the environmental factors that

have been connected to the increased development of autism, they are among others,

maternal gestational diabetes, maternal bleeding during pregnancy, and maternal

medication (Gardener, Spiegelman, & Buka, 2009). It should also be noted that some studies

concluded that it is not possible to fully understand on whether the cause of autism is more

genetically or environmentally based, and further investigation is required to be able to

understand the underlying causes of the disorder (Chaste & Leboyer, 2012).

The cure for ASD is unavailable, however, behavioural therapies might help to improve

communication and social behaviour, and therefore enhance the individual’s wellbeing and

quality of life. Their care and needs are very complex and health specialists often need to

collaborate with other spheres such as education, employment and social sectors. Some

persons with ASD can be independent and live a ‘normal’ life, while others need a support

and help in everyday routines. In terms of employment, persons with ASD may struggle to

get a job opportunity, and even if they have the chance to get one they might face

difficulties to adapt and to remaining in work for a long period of time, as the normal

business model is usually not that flexible and integrative (WHO, 2016).

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3. Proposed solution

Asphire is an online platform where users can create private profiles. This profile can

contain personality traits and strengths, and will function as a digital résumé. The purpose

of this is to provide employers with a clear overview of a job seeker with ASD. The profiles

will be closed to the public, but you can choose to share your profile with specific people,

like employers. The access can be revoked at any time, at the mercy of the profile owner.

We want the professionals to be available at every step, so that a user can get guidance

from an early stage. This will reduce the number of steps in an application process. We will

integrate this into the website, so that Escala can be contacted with the click of a button.

We want our solution to serve as a portal for useful information, both for employers,

employees and the general public. For example, links to the services which NAV provides to

the society. This will aid in bridging the knowledge gap for people who are curious about our

platform and what we have to offer.

The screenshot in figure 2 displays the proposed solution, in which the top part of the

website is shown. A full image of the home screen can be found in Appendix D.

Figure 2: Asphire main functionalities

The purpose of the Asphire platform is to connect ASD people with Escala and to get them

out into the job market where they can make use of their best abilities. If successful, this will

lead to increased employment, and consequently to the fulfilment of the SDGs number 8.

Additionally, by contributing to society and experiencing new things, individuals may

achieve a feeling of accomplishment, which complies with the goal number 3. This might

also cause better integration in the society for people with ASD, and thus lead to reduced

inequalities, goal number 10.

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3.1 Related Work

3.1.1 Prima-Escala career center

Our challenge owner was the career center Escala and they are located in Trondheim, where

their main function is to be the bridge between the employee and the employer (ESCALA,

2017). Their goal is to help people with disabilities such as autism, asperger's syndrome and

person with depression to enter the job market. They are already an established organ

under the company Prima, and recruit people to work. Prima is mainly the umbrella

company with different job position such as packaging of fruit, cathering, or working in a

kindergarten for disabled individuals. Escales main function is to recruit different people to

these job position, and also the other companies and work, such as in shops.

The core function of Escala is to map the skills and abilities of different people and to make

a connection with the employers. During the mapping of the skills and abilities, they use

several different surveys to find out the positive traits of the candidate. For autistic people

and people with asperger's, they have their own surveys, which will contain over 100

question about themself. After completing this survey they will get a code, which will

describe their personalities and their skills, such as practical, theoretical and artistic, social

and creative.

The diversity of how much a person is affected by autistic disorder differs from person to

person. Some person can have a severe condition than the other person. Not everyone are

able to describe themselves or are about to answer the survey. To solve this problem Escala

have established a mapping system where the candidate can choose between different

picture of different jobs, this can for example be a photo of a person who is cooking. If the

candidate choose this picture, the candidate may be placed in a restaurant related work.

With this help they are able to find a suitable work for the candidate. NAV is one of the main

organs which is supporting Prima, NAV buys 105 job positions from Prima and pays the

employees. In this way prima is only paying some percentage of the salary (ESCALA, 2017).

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3.1.2 LinkedIn

Our webpage can be compared to the website LinkedIn, where jobseekers can write about

their background, about their education, their skills, abilities and experience. This webpage

is comparable to Asphire, but our platform is tailored to people with ASD. We will provide

better tools for privacy, we will promote ASD friendly businesses and most importantly, we

will help people get in contact with Escala.

4. Methodology

4.1 Week 1

Triangle activity

In the very first day of our village we performed an activity called theoretical, practical and

personal skills triangle, Figure C.5 in Appendix C. The purpose of this activity was to map the

the relevant group members skills that could be used for this project. It was a good way to

start as we got to know each other and their abilities, how we the tasks can probably be

further divided and where to steer the project.

Challenge presentation

In the second day we were presented with six challenges associated with the challenges that

persons with ASD face in their everyday life, as follows:

1. Business ideas that take advantage of an autistic mind

2. Need for knowledge-based organizational, technical and financial infrastructure to

support new work opportunities

3. Fulfill the UN Convention for Persons with Disabilities

4. Create solutions that help people affected by autism to better handle stress

5. Interdisciplinary - overall knowledge sharing about the individual job seeker

6. Communicate, educate and influence policy

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Brainstorming

First, we tried to only toss ideas amongst all of the challenges without any deeper

discussions about them. Further, we tried to narrow these ideas down, discuss and focus on

three of them. Two ideas were related to challenge number 7 – Communicate, educate and

influence policy and one idea on challenge number 6 – Overall knowledge sharing about the

individual job seeker.

SOCRATIC

All of us were introduced to the SOCRATIC platform where we could upload and collect our

ideas. The system made it possible for our ideas to be assessed further by challenge owners

and fellow students. Within this platform we developed further the concept of our project,

such as the beneficiaries, values, key elements, impact on stakeholders, necessary skills and

resources and implementation plan. The platform also incentivised us to think about related

innovations and who to contact in order to promote our idea.

First presentation

On the fifth village day we have presented our three ideas to the rest of the village and to

the challenge owners. Afterwards, the challenge owners were voting for the ideas and the

best voted one was chosen for us to work on, which was Asphire.

4.2 Week 2

SWOT analysis

The aim of this activity was to figure out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and

threats of our project. This gave us the time to think deeply through our idea and focus on

these elements. Through this exercise, we realised that promoting the platform to

businesses would pose a challenge. We also noticed that the cooperation with Escala was a

real strength for the platform.

Meeting Escala and Autism Association

We have sent some emails and made calls with members of Escala and Autism Association

to arrange a meeting. There we wanted to give them a more detailed description of our idea

and establish a possible cooperation. The meeting raised plenty of ideas about it, mainly

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providing the one-on-one guidance for jobseekers, assessing them with their available tools

and further implementing this information to our platform. Furthermore, we properly

started collecting information about individuals with ASD that were necessary for our

further work.

Functional requirements

After combining the knowledge from the SWOT analysis and the mentioned meeting, we

made a list of functional requirements for the website. By brainstorming, we came up with

many different requirements. Some of them were general requirements which most

websites should have, like “navigation”. Other requirements were more project specific, for

example the “verified profile label/icon”, which is an icon which can be placed on verified

profiles. The requirements from this session can be found in Appendix B. Having a list of

atomic parts made it easy to think about the structure of the website. For example, our list

contained “Login” and “Logout” functions, which meant that our layout had to make room

for these components.

Web page design

From the list, we could start creating an initial design. We drew it on paper because it is

relatively fast and it is not necessary to commit to one design in particular. Picking one

functional requirement at a time, we constructed the page component by component.

Second presentation

There we presented our progress over the second week, introducing our project a bit closer,

the image of our design and future plans.

4.3 Week 3

Prototype

With an initial design in hand, we started working on a digital prototype. Using the tool

JustInMind, which is a prototyping tool, we made an interactive version of the website. A

complete set of screenshots can be found in Appendix D. In the prototype, you can navigate

through different pages, and read small tidbits of information about the project. You can go

through a registration process, but no data will actually be stored. Clicking on “log in” will

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take you to an example profile, where you will be able to change your account details. A

technical finesse which has been implemented is automatic scrolling, which means when

loading a new page, it will automatically scroll down to the relevant content of the page.

Final presentation

The last day of our village we presented our project and showed a live demo of our web

page made in JustInMind. We also focused more on its limitations and future work, which

are described in sections 6.3 and 6.4, respectively .

5. Findings

Soon after posting our ideas on the socratic platform, we got feedback from other users and

from the challenge owners. The comments on our ideas were in retrospect our first

evaluation. One important comment was posted by Julia Lindqvist, the leader of Autism

Association in Sør-Trondelag. Her concern was that it is really difficult to write about

yourself when you have ASD. Additionally, ASD people might not agree with other people's

assessment of them. Based on the feedback we got from Julia, we adjusted our idea

somewhat. Instead of only involving Escala in verifying content, we decided that they should

be involved in the whole content creation process. We wanted them to be available at every

step of setting up a user’s profile.

On day fifth day, we presented our three main ideas to the challenge owners and the

partners. The most important feedback we got for Asphire, was that we should only allow

users to register if they are a member of the autism association. This would later be baked

into our development plan.

On the eighth day of the village we arranged the meeting with members of Escala and

Autism Association. Escala showed us what they are mainly working with and how they can

help us, in terms of testing job seekers with ASD and mapping their skills. Before this

meeting we were a little bit concerned about mapping abilities of individuals with ASD, but

Escala gave us the answer. They have tests and inventories they normally use which is

possible to implement also to our project with their assistance. They presented us also an

idea of having online profiles anonymous, the way they promote job seekers with ASD to

employers; then the employer does not focus on the state of health but on the skills.

ASPHIRE 20

Speaking of private profiles, members of Autism Association presented, that security

measures might be one of the most important things we should consider. Moreover, they

said that for future it would be very nice to have an online community - in Trondheim, in

Norway, for people with ASD and have everything under one common roof; to have

business part where they can find available positions, ask questions about work-world,

share their stories, share experiences, chat together and so forth. And maybe even make

this platform available not only for persons with ASD but also for their families and friends,

so they can ask for help too. This implementation of a community would look exactly like

our other idea, Aspie online, which we presented the fifth day of the village. In conclusion,

this meeting gave us the feeling that we are on the right track, as we had already considered

most of their proposed ideas.

On the tenth day we had the online guest lecture from Elias G. Carayannis presenting us the

importance of a business plan. It is beneficial to outline the business goals and how they are

going to be achieved. It helps in organising the project and grasping the main idea of what

has to be done. Our business plan can be found in Appendix A.

From the feedback on the final presentation, we learned that security is an important issue

for our potential users. Even though we are not at a stage where we are able to implement

any security features, it’s still important to keep it in mind during the early phases of a

project. Another important issue which was raised was whether or not the website would

function properly on mobile devices. We had not previously considered this, however, it is

important to think about responsiveness during the design phase, as it will influence the

choice of web technologies. The final concern of the audience was whether or not

businesses would take any interest in the platform and that promotion and fundraising is an

important part we have to take into consideration.

Our idea of Asphire gathered the most questions and discussions after presentations and we

might assume that it raised the interest among the audience, mainly challenge owners.

ASPHIRE 21

6. Discussion

Creating a good profile requires a lot of self-awareness, which can be extra challenging for a

person with ASD. Therefore, the website relies on a tight partnership with Escala. We want

to make it easy to set up appointments with Escala, so that you can get one-on-one

guidance in creating your profile. Escala has a lot of expertise in career guidance, and

through them, we want to minimize the effort needed to set up a high-quality profile. This

will alleviate the need for strong self-awareness.

One way to reduce the strain of self-evaluation is to provide easy access to the mapping

tools which Escala provides. The results from these tools are often indicative of which field

you should be working in. The Asphire platform will integrate these mapping tools, so that

the results can be directly applied to a user profile.

The need for friendly businesses to take interest in our platform is also apparent. There are

several ways to attract businesses, and the most obvious method is through marketing and

promotion. Giving employers incentives to join also helps a great deal, therefore the

platform should promote active, positive businesses to the job seeker. Giving recruiters the

chance to promote their business on Asphire should result in better offers for people with

ASD.

Employers who are interested in using Asphire should be verified as friendly, so that the

website only host businesses who are serious about inclusive workplaces. This is a large

task, which another group from our village is working on. Through collaboration, the ASD

Friendly Label from group 4 could be a requirement for businesses who wants to register on

our platform.

6.1 Theoretical Implications

From the beginning of the project, we have been doing social innovation. The challenges

issued to us were real social problems, and they were presented by people who work with

these issues, in one way or another, every day. The idea of social innovation is to identify a

social problem, and to do something positive about it using a systemic, sustainable

ASPHIRE 22

approach. As this was the theme of our village, we naturally implemented it in our

approach.

The resulting platform Asphire is a sustainable solution, because as long as it exists and is

used, it will provide sustainability to the workforce and to the economy. By providing

employers with the correct tools and contacts, we will be able to prevent drop-outs from

work. For example, if a person with ASD does not show up for work, the supervisor can get

advice from Escala. This is possible because the employee found his job through Asphire and

Escala. Through this effort, the employee will be able to keep his job, thereby achieving

sustainability.

Asphire will help in taking important steps towards UN sustainability goals 3, 8, 10. By

increasing overall happiness and reducing work-related stress, goal number 3, good health

and well-being, will be achieved. By making people with ASD more accessible for work, goal

number 10, reduced inequalities, will be achieved. And finally, by powering the workforce

and making workplaces more diverse, goal number 8, decent work and economic growth,

will be achieved.

6.2 Practical Implications

By making people with ASD more available to employers, we will be able to employ a whole

range of people who previously could not find a job. By increasing employment, we increase

economic growth. If we reduce the number of people on welfare and increase the number

of people paying income tax, this will have a positive impact on the national budget.

Research by Kober & Eggleton (2005) indicates that a person’s quality of life improves when

it is employed. For many people, working is better than staying at home alone, because you

can get many benefits from having a workplace. Going to work enables you to have

interactions with other people, which is important in fighting loneliness. Additionally, most

people need self-actualization, the feeling realizing your potential. By contributing to

meaningful work, people can usually take advantage of their potential and feel good about

themselves.

People with ASD have advantages which should be of benefit in the workplace. In an article

published by Hurlbutt & Chalmers (2004), it is emphasized that employers should be aware

ASPHIRE 23

of the fact that most people with ASD are very punctual, which means that they are rarely

late for work, and they are rarely late to return from lunch. They do not spend much time in

small talking with other colleagues, and they do not waste time on personal phone calls, for

example.

6.3 Limitations

During our project period we have been facing a lot of speed bumps regarding our project,

and this has been affecting the progress of our project. In this upcoming section we will

highlight some of the limitations we have been facing as a group, and future limitations

regarding Asphire.

6.3.1 How does a person with ASD think and behave?

Throughout these three weeks we have been working with a project concerning people with

ASD, in the first place it was difficult for us to understand how it was to live with a disorder

like Asperger's. Several of our group members have in their life met a person with autism,

but we found it difficult to be in their shoes and to think like them. It was very helpful that

the ASD association was involved in our project, but it was several time we were thinking as

a neurotypical person, but later on we got comment that this is not possible for people with

ASD. For example, in the earlier stage of our project, we suggested that jobseeker can

describe about them in the website. After consulting with the ASD association, we got to

know that autistic individuals have difficulties describing about their personalities, skills and

abilities. We wished that ASD association could be a part of these three weeks, because

then we could have arranged a meeting with them weekly, and solved the problem, before

spending a lot of time on the project ideas that would not have been suiting for the ASD

association.

6.3.2 Security and confidentiality

Our idea is to make a online profile on the webpage for jobseekers with ASD, the purpose is

to give an opportunity to the ASD community to get involved in the job market. Regarding

this platform a lot of security and confidentiality problems arose during these three weeks.

Mariannes speech included her experience with bullying during her childhood and her

ASPHIRE 24

previous year in the workplace. Marianne highlighted for our group that, the profile should

be somehome anonymous. Otherwise this can be a platform for bullies, and a door opener

to online bullying of the individuals. Escale also provided the idea that when they contact a

company they only provide information about ASD jobseekers skills, abilities and previous

work experience to the employer, and not the personal information. If the employer are

interested, the Escale will provide the personal information. This is somehow providing a

framework when it comes to security and confidentiality.

Our future plan is also to make profiles for the employers as well, and our concern was

regarding the profile making on the webpage. To limit other people from entering this web

page you have to be a member of the ASD association, and get a membership/organization

number. In this way we are limiting access to other people, and providing security to the

webpage.

Also the fact that the profiles on the webpage will not be publically, everyone has to log in

to be able to see the profiles with a password and a username. Also the fact that the profile

owner have all right to choose what information should be provided on the profile, and it

should be possible to make changes at any time.

6.3.3 How to get business involved?

Our major strength to this web page is the close collaboration with businesses and different

companies in Trondheim, and then expand it to rest of Norway. The challenging part of this

is how to promote the companies and different businesses to join our website. This has

been one of our major limitation, and our idea is to visit different companies and promote

our project. The purpose is to spread the word, so that the community know that a website

like this exist for ASD persons. Another way to promote Asphire is to advertise it on the

social media, such as facebook, Instagram and different blog pages.

6.3.4 Fundraising

To be able to develop further with our idea it is an essential factor to get funding to our

project. Since we only have one member in this group with a computer science background,

we probably need some other resources with the competence to work on this project. To be

able to further develop our idea we need especially funding for marketing the project. We

ASPHIRE 25

believe that our challenge owner Escale will be supporting us mainly, or we have the ability

to apply for funding from different student organization, which will support student projects

at NTNU. In our future perspective we also want to include different companies including in

Trondheim and other cities. To be able to do that we need to promote our idea to the

companies, by visiting the companies.

6.4 Future work

Asphire aspires to establish collaboration with Prima-Escala to further fulfill the users

profiles with Escala’s database and add the job offers provided by Prima-AS and so being

able to link the right job seeker with the right employee. Asphire wants to improve the job

quality for both employers and employees by covering the users needs and counselling

them if they struggle in any situation related with their job. For this purpose, would believe

important to integrate more social workers in the platform. Our vision is also giving the

opportunity to employers to contact Escala in cases when they already have an employee

with ASD but cannot handle the critical situations. Therefore, the next step from letting job

seekers create their online profiles would be letting businesses create these profiles to

make a perfect match.

During the early phases of production, the demand for computing resources will be

relatively low since most of the users will be based in Trondheim. If the platform was to gain

traction globally, there might be a need for extra server capacity to handle the increased

network traffic.

It would be significantly important to also cooperate and cointegrate both Asphire and

Autism Inclusive Company - the project developed by village group number 4, because it will

highly increase the possibilities of having new companies interested and, for instance, more

possibilities for people with ASD to find a job.

It is also considered to make the platform available globally, in the same private way, but

including different locations. The procedure will be the same but adding, for example, other

regions from Scandinavia or Europe. And above all, continue spreading the knowledge and

social awareness in order to get a better life for everyone and a wiser society.

As a long term vision we aim to create a complex community of people with ASD with

everything under one roof, such as stories and experience sharing or creating a forum

ASPHIRE 26

where they can ask what they would like to. Also considering to include families and friends

of ASD persons to get access to this online community in order to educate, ask and give

advices. This we believe would give persons with ASD the feeling of support and acceptance.

7. Conclusion

During these three weeks, we have learned a lot about ourselves and about others. Through

diversity and teamwork, we have achieved a greater understanding of social innovation. We

have learnt that to achieve the social change we first have to define the problem and then

we need ideas on how to solve it.

We focused on the challenge number six and our aim was to promote individual job seekers

the best possible way. Our idea, Asphire, will make it easier for people with ASD to get into

the job market. It will do this by providing the tools and necessary guidance for a person to

succeed. We have got very valuable feedback and comments during our work, concerns and

questions which improved our thinking about the solution. Very beneficial for us was a

closer cooperation with Escala, where their representative, Eva Skulbru Eriksen, offered

guidance after the first presentation.

Asphire was well received during the presentations, generating many questions from

interested parties. Most importantly, it gained a lot of interest from the challenge owners,

Escala. They also proposed that we should present the idea to the management of Escala, so

that they can evaluate whether or not to invest in this idea.

ASPHIRE 27

References

Bailey, A., Le Couteur, A., Gottesman, I., Bolton, P., Simonoff, E., Yuzda, E., & Rutter, M.

(1995). Autism as a strongly genetic disorder: evidence from a British twin study.

Psychol Med, 25(1), 63-77.

Chaste, P., & Leboyer, M. (2012). Autism risk factors: genes, environment, and

gene-environment interactions. Dialogues Clin Neurosci, 14(3), 281-292.

EiT (2017). Challenge number 6 description – Overall knowledge sharing about the individual

job seeker. Experts in Team, ICT-Enabled Social Innovation for Social Good.

European Commission (2010). Empowering people, driving change: Social innovation in the

European Union.

European Commission (2016). Social Innovation. Retrieved from

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1022

ESCALA (2017). Escala Karriere. Retrieved from http://escala.no/#escala-karriere

Gardener, H., Spiegelman, D., & Buka, S. L. (2009). Prenatal risk factors for autism:

comprehensive meta-analysis. Br J Psychiatry, 195(1), 7-14.

Hallmayer, J., Cleveland, S., Torres, A., Phillips, J., Cohen, B., Torigoe, T., Risch, N. (2011).

Genetic heritability and shared environmental factors among twin pairs with autism.

Arch Gen Psychiatry, 68(11), 1095-1102.

Hendricks, D. (2010). Employment and adults with autism spectrum disorders: Challenges

and strategies. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 32.

Hurlbutt, K., & Chalmers, L. (2004). Employment and Adults With Asperger Syndrome. Focus

on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 19(4), 215-222.

Kober, R. and Eggleton, I. R. C. (2005), The effect of different types of employment on

quality of life. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 49: 756–760.

Mulgan, G., Tucker, S., Ali, R., & Sanders, B. (2007). Social Innovation: What it is, why it

matters and how it can be accelerated. Retrieved from London, UK.

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SOCRATIC. (2016). About SOCRATIC. Retrieved from

http://socratic.idi.ntnu.no:8080/socratic-platform/about?9

The Economist. (2016). The rise of autism: Spectrum shift. The Economist. Retrieved from

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21696928-children-rich-world-are-far-m

ore-likely-be-diagnosed-autism-past-why

United Nations (2015). Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved from

http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

United Nations (2016a). The Sustainable Development Agenda. Retrieved from

http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/

United Nations (2016b). World Autism Awareness Day. Retrieved from

http://www.un.org/en/events/autismday/2015/action.shtml

WHO (2016). World Health Organization. Autism spectrum disorders. Retrieved from

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/autism-spectrum-disorders/en/

ASPHIRE 29

Appendices

Appendix A: Business Plan Outline

Appendix B: Functional Requirements

Appendix C: Personal Post-Its

Appendix D: Prototype

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Appendix A: Business Plan Outline

1. Executive Summary

Asphire is a website promoting job for people with special needs, specially people within the

autism spectrum. The objective is to create a platform with users, companies and ASD

associations, in furtherance of reducing the social steps that a person with ASD might need

to get a job, for example job research, emailing and interviews, situations difficult to bear

for people with this problem. Asphire will cooperates with other companies and

associations sorting out and defining every user characteristic and match them with the

right position.

2. Company description

We are part of the NTNU village ICT- Enabled Social Innovation for Social Good. A

pluridisciplinary team formed by five master students. Jørgen from Computer Science,

Mafalda Silva from Industrial Ecology, Andrea Benkeova from Childhood studies, Neeruja

Balenthiran from Molecular Medicine and Juanma Cruz from Sustainable Architecture.

The team in not only pluridisciplinary but also international, because every member comes

from a different country. The team motivation is to create a tool that help not only people

with ASD but also the whole society, reducing injustices and social gaps. Promoting

wellbeing and equality for everyone.

3. Market Analysis

The job market in Norway, especially in Sør-Trøndelag region, is pretty active, approximately

4.8% during 2016, meanwhile but United Nations said that approximately 80% of the adults

within the autism spectrum are unemployed. The 80% of unemployment is not due to the

lack of skills, but for the lack of communication. Trondheim market offer jobs for people

ASPHIRE 31

with special features like people with ASD, but users struggle during the process previous to

start up the job. For this, Asphire aspire to be the connector between user and companies,

Escala is the main stakeholder and works with Prima-as, company providing jobs for people

with special characteristics.

4. Service or Product Line

The platform service is to enable social goods and create employment. It will benefit

primary users within the autism spectrum disease, but is a chain that connects to the

companies hiring them, families, friends and the whole society.

It is an online service for Sør-Trøndelag region because for people with autism is easier to

work in the same area where they live/belong to. But it aims to be extended to other

regions in Norway.

5. Strategy and Implementation Summary

The strategy is to launch Asphire in the market by hand with Escala. Escala as a challenge

owner and main stakeholder provides with an structured map up of users, the first thing is

to introduce these user profiles inside the Asphire database, the database system helps to

sort the profiles by skills and therefore it will be easier to establish a connection in with the

job offer.

We believe that the job market is very vast and there is a lot of users well prepared for

taking the jobs. But in Asphire there is only profiles of customers with ASD, which reduces

the competitively and enlarge the number of possibilities for them. As Asphire helps these

profiles to be more accurate and specific, the target will be closer and hence easier to aim.

There is a lot of demand in the market, and Asphire is an approaching tool for users within

the autism spectrum towards it. The market has been evaluated thanks to our challenge

owners, and we know that once the platform is released, it will have enough offer and

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demand for keeping the platform active. Escala has already a high number of profiles

Prima-as also job offers that will launch the website.

6. Organization & Management

The website will be managed by the team members and with the cooperation of our

challenge owner, Escala. Our computer science student Jørgen Valstad will be managing the

website and Juanma Cruz will help with the design and development. Andrea, as a

Childhood studies teacher, will help both users and companies to better understand the

necessities of the users. Neeruja will be in charge of the health management and Mafalda

with her environmental expertise and planning and administration skills will provide the

team with all the information necessary for a sustainable and innovative development.

7. Operational plan

The business will be working locally Sør-Trøndelag region. The platform will need 2

employers for the website management and 3 more for promotion and project

management. Asphire cooperates with its challenge owner Escala, a big company that will

provide the users with career counselling and to convey jobseekers to the open job market.

The website connects the employer with the employee after it has been selected through

the associations and companies, reducing for instance the social steps the user with autism

have to pass. Thanks to Aspie-online we can help the job seeker with convey and job

instructions.

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8. Marketing & Promotion

Asphire integration in the market will depend not only on the job market demand but also

on the promotion to be known. For that reason, it is important to have a strategy to get to

know the in associations, companies and users. Asphire marketing plan consist of:

a. Direct promotion visiting companie after mailing contact, with a personal

introduction and further project explanation.

b. Direct promotion visiting associations after mailing contact, with a personal

introduction and further project explanation. It will include the associations

managers and the users. The marketing plan is to help the users to test and evaluate

the platform, and so explain them how it works and why would it be beneficial for

them.

c. There is workshops where people with ASD can interact and we aim to participate

and explain how Asphire works, the Aspie-Online platform and the job research

through it.

d. Online promotion Like & Share on Facebook.

e. Asphire also want to participate with people who is popular like celebrities,

musicians. We would like them to participate with the promotion by sharing their

opinion via twitter or other media.

f. Health Sector. The platform promotes better health and hospitals or care centers

can be part of promotion.

g. Asphire wants to participate with other village groups projects, for example, the

Asperger friendly label for companies.

h. Is it important to promote the platform also lobbying politicians, and this can also

help the financial plan.

i. Direct contact with other job agencies like Manpower, Finn or Jobbnorge is

important.

j. We want to cooperate with the United Nations and The Global Development Goals.

ASPHIRE 34

9. Financial Projections

As every business, Asphire also needs initial fundings. However, a website requires less than

others. Financial projections are to back up our request criterial. It is to search fundings

through volunteering, associations and Norwegian government.

ASPHIRE 35

Appendix B: Functional Requirements

FR1 Login

Priority: High

FR2 Log out

Priority: High

FR3 Navigation

Priority: High

FR4 Contact us

Priority: Low

FR5 About us

Priority: Low

FR6 Different pages for business and job seeker

Priority: Medium

FR7 Search function

Priority: Low

FR8 Switching between english and norwegian

Priority: High

FR9 Security; HTTPS certificate

Priority: High

FR10 Register new user with basic information; wait for validation?

Priority: High

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FR11 Captcha for new users

Priority: High

FR12 Delete user

Priority: Medium

FR13 Generate shared profile link

Priority: High

FR14 Change privacy settings: Private/Public

Priority: High

FR15 Revoke access privileges

Priority: High

FR16 Set timer for access privileges

Priority: Medium

FR17 Profile Template

Priority: Medium

FR18 Verified profile label/icon

Priority: High

FR19 Searchable businesses, sorted by profession

Priority: Medium

FR20 Questionnaire type profile

Priority: High

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Appendix C: Personal Post-Its

This appendix contains digitalized versions of the post-it notes the team used in the first

team exercise. Here we have three of our personal abilities, theoretical skills and practical

skills. Figure C.5 illustrates the original task.

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Appendix D: Prototype

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